Flying Colours
by ChelseaLovesFood
Summary: What if Ron wasn't such a coward? What if he "plucked up the courage" and asked Hermione to the Yule Ball? Dadadada...  #threeshot
1. Not a Chapter, More like a Preview

**Hi! Here's another short story. It revolves around Ron and Hermione. We all know that if Ron had asked Hermione to the Yule Ball, everything would be different! They would have gotten into a relationship in fourth year; they wouldn't have spent years trying to hide their feelings from each other and maybe some kind of real teenage relationship drama would have occurred! Who knows! It would all have to start off with Ron asking Hermione to the Yule Ball. And here's my version of how that would've happened. Read and Review please!**

The common room was empty besides the usual, Harry, Ron and Hermione, who were currently sitting at different corners of the room. It was cold and quiet that Friday night and not a word had been spoken out of any of their mouths mostly because they were so concentrated. Hermione's face was partially hidden behind _Hogwarts, a History, _Harry was finishing up his Potions homework and Ron had a blank piece of parchment in front of him. He was supposed to be doing a six-inch essay for Defense Against the Dark Arts but that wasn't what he was focused on. He was contemplating asking Hermione to the Yule Ball. _'What if she says no?'_ he thought to himself. '_Why would she? You're best friends.' _he replied. _'What if she's already been asked?'_, _'Then I'm sure she'd be sorry but admire your courage to ask.' _he argued.

Without his consent, his feet somehow made its way over to Hermione. She looked up from her book curiously and asked:

"Yes, Ron?"

"Hi, I just wanted to…" he stared at his feet as he balanced on his heels. Ron could overhear Harry snickering as he watched the scene in the corner.

"Mmm…?" she edged on.

"Er, night!" he shouted and ran upstairs to the Boy's Dormitory. He was so embarrassed. He entered the room to find everyone in their bunks, sleeping or reading. Ron crawled up into his bunk and closed the curtains shut. Even though he knew nobody in the room had witnessed the event, he still didn't want anyone looking at him because he was almost positive he would be as red as a tomato.

How could he have messed up worse? In the pit of his stomach, he wanted to vomit. He felt like a real bloke. Why couldn't he just ask? Because he was a cowards, that's why. He had one thing on his mind, however. He would not have this same feeling the following night.

**Okay, this was so bloody short! But this was just the introduction, guys. The other chapters will be fairly… fair… Sorry, I suck at long chapters! **


	2. Chapter 2: Fire Works

Ron woke up Saturday morning with a burst of confidence. The anxiety he had in his stomach yesterday was now nowhere to be found. Ron opened the curtains to reveal several empty bunks. Harry was up, reading a piece of parchment.

"Hello," Harry addressed

"Hi," Ron replied

"Ready for another day of total embarrassment?"

"Piss off. Come on, let's go eat. I'm starving."

"Right…"

They left the dormitory and climbed through the porthole of the common room. On their way down to the Great Hall, Ron avoided the topic of the previous night because he knew Harry was buzzing to joke about it.

Once they reached the Gryffindor table, they greeted Hermione and quickly began eating. She had already finished breakfast and was reading over her homework.

"Hermione, have you been asked to the ball as yet?" Harry asked after he nudged Ron to get his attention off of his plate.

"Er, no." she replied indifferently.

"Oh, don't worry, someone will soon. Once they pluck up the courage…"

"Thank you, Harry but I don't worry about getting a date to the ball."

"And you shouldn't. Any of these blokes would be lucky if you went with them."

"I suppose, but I don't really care about things like that. I mean getting a date would be great, I guess, but if I don't, I'm not going to cry about it like other girls do."

Ron sat there fighting the urge to scream "will you go to the ball with me" in her face, by biting his lip and staring down at his breakfast. By this time, he was so confident about what he had to do that he began thinking about how he was going to do it. How would Hermione Granger appreciate being invited to the ball? He wanted to make it special. No, he wasn't proposing marriage or anything like that but he knew that if she accepted, it would be a milestone in their relationship. _If_ she accepted… that was a whole other thing. What if she rejected him?

Ron decided that if he kept thinking, he'd probably talk himself out of ever making a move. And where would that leave them? Seventh year and _she_ decides to make the first more? To hell with that. He abruptly got up from the table earning Harry and Hermione's questioning eyes.

"Er, I got to…yeah…" he stuttered and briskly walked away.

He wasn't planning on going back to the dormitory and somehow his feet brought him to one of the most unlikely places: the library. What were the chances of him finding a book on 'how to ask your best friend/crush to the Yule Ball' yet he still browsed through the isles, searching.

After about twenty wasted minutes of searching, he was ready to give up. About to replace a book on its shelf, he caught glimpse of the back of a girl with brown, bushy hair he was so familiar with. Hermione. He had forgotten he might've encountered her in the library. After all, it was her favourite place in the entire world. In an attempt to sneak out quickly and quietly, he tiptoed down the isle and to the back shelf. He swiveled on his feet and escaped out of sight. _"Close one."_ he thought to himself.

Then, Ron realized he still had a book in his hands. He had forgotten to put it back on the shelf as he ran. He looked down on it. _'Playing with Fire and not Getting Burned' _by Joanne Rowling. He opened it and scanned the contents swiftly.

'_Chapter 6: Word Play – pg. 172'_ he turned to the page and began reading in his head.

"_By now you would've mastered the easy art of fire work. In this chapter, you will learn step-by-step, how to conjure charms to make the fire spell out different words and sentences. You will learn to form simple things such as 'I Love You' or complicated sentences such as 'Honey, please call you mother and ask her if she is going to be supplying the pumpkin juice for the party.' In the following chapter, you will learn how to form human-like sounds with your fire…"_

That was it! He could do some fire work on the fire in the common room so that when he got the chance to be alone with Hermione he could complete it and show her.

Later that evening in the common room, the last person, a second year named Bobby Fitzgerald had finally left. The common room was quiet and peaceful with just the three of them, though Ron was a bit annoyed at Harry. Not that he had told him about his plans or anything but he was sort of hoping he would've just figured it out.

Every now and then, Ron would glance at the crackling fire that he had prepared earlier. The book was indeed correct, fire work _was_ easy. All he had to do was write _'Will you go to the ball with me?' _on a piece of parchment and mumble _'Firendio'_ while tapping it with his wand a couple times. Then, drop it into the fire and to be sure it had worked, sparks would fly in the shape of a circle. To complete it, he would need to tap the fire with his wand while saying _'Blazio'_. If he had done it correctly, a capitalized _'Will you go to the ball with me?' _would conjure in the fire.

Ron was ready. He was going to do this. He scribbled quickly on a piece of scrap parchment: _'Get out, mate. I'm going to do _it_ now!' _and threw it at Harry's face. It hit his glasses and he threw an angry glare at Ron. Harry opened the crushed parchment, read it, and looked confused at first but them, his face filled with understanding and amusement.

"Hermione, Ron, I'm off to bed." Harry spoke up with a smirk on his face.

"Night, Harry." they replied in unison and quickly, Harry ran up the stairs to the Boys' Dormitory.

Ron got up off of the chair he so often occupied and walked over to Hermione who was sitting on the wooden floor, reading a new book.

"Hermione, you got a minute?"

"Now? Is it urgent? I'm right in the middle of this book." she said without glancing up at the specky, red-haired boy calling to her attention.

"A bit," Ron replied nervously. She looked up, he brown eyes blazing with interest. Ron held out his hand to help her up and she took it without hesitation. Once she was up, she fiddled awkwardly with Ron's hand, wondering if she should let go or not. He answered by leading her to the fireplace. She had a confused look plastered on her face.

"Sit down." Ron said and she complied. He was surprised how calm he was and how natural it all felt. He took out his wand from his pocket and tapped the fire.

"Blazio." He whispered and slowly, the words began to form letter-by-letter in the fire. After about a minute of configuration, it finally spelled out _'WILL YOU GO TO THE BALL WITH ME?'_

Hermione sat, amazed with her mouth hanging slightly open.

"So… what do you say?" Ron asked, feeling rather nervous again. Hermione got up from the ground and looked Ron straight in the eyes with a smirk on her face.

"I'd be delighted." She hugged him around his torso. Relief washed over him as he hugged her back. Still engaged in the hug, she mumbled:

"I can't believe you went through all that trouble into learning fire works just to ask me." Ron pulled away.

"You should be grateful! I had to go to the _library_." He said the word with disgust. They both smiled at each other with content.

And that night, Ron fell asleep feeling much happier than the night before.

**I really got carried away with this chapter during the book part. I really planned on Ron just running out of the library and encountering Neville who had successfully asked Ginny to the ball. Oh and just so you know, those spells were not real ones that J.K. Rowling had written about or anything, I just made them up. The 'fire work' was not anything real either, I made that up too. I also really liked the fact that I included **_**"Where would that leave them? Seventh year and she decides to make the first move?"**_** Derf. Only one more chapter left, guys!**


	3. Chapter 3: Let's Shake

The morning of the ball had quickly arrived after a pleasant week of Ron's kindness and gentleness towards Hermione. Not once had they bickered or quarreled of any sort and it was a good change for the both of them. Harry thought of it good as well. He had always hated seeing them angry at one another mostly because he knew they did it to cover up their true feelings. Harry also succeeded in asking Cho Chang to the ball. There were a few rumors circulating that Cedric Diggory was solemnly upset about that and was going to duel him. Well, no such thing happened. Although, Ron noticed that whenever Harry and Cedric passed in the hall, Cedric would throw angry glares.

Ron woke excitedly and quickly changed into his robes before waking Harry. As soon as he finished, he nudged Harry in his sleep.

"Ah, flemespen." Harry mumbled s he rolled over in his cot.

"Harry! Oi!" Ron shouted causing Harry to jump out of his sleep quickly and reach for his wand on his beside table. After Harry put on his glasses to correct his vision, he sighed, annoyed.

"You don't have to bloody scream in my ear!" Harry replied.

"Sorry, I'm just excited, is all."

"Yeah, me too, but I reckon with you bursting my eardrum and all, I won't be able to enjoy the ball."

"Just hurry up and change so we can get down to the Great Hall."

"Excited to see your little date, Ronnie?" Harry laughed and Ron smacked him on his arm.

After a few more smacks and snide comments, Harry finally decided to change and follow Ron down to breakfast. Once they got down, they found Hermione wasn't there. They took their seats, Ron saving one for Hermione, and after an hour of waiting, Hermione still hadn't come down.

"I wonder where she is," Ron said nervously.

"Er, does it matter? She didn't blow you off on a date. She just decided not to come to breakfast."

"What if she doesn't want to see me?"

"Doubt it. Calm down, we'll see her later on in the day."

Harry was dead wrong. They didn't see her later on in the day. In fact, Harry himself was becoming quite suspicious. Ron decided to take it upon himself to search most of the school for her. He checked the library, the common room, the library, the Great Hall, Hagrid's hut, and the library again with still no trace of her.

The ball was in thirty minutes so it was time to get ready. After coming from the library, Ron had just arrived in the Boys' Dormitory to find Harry in his undershirt and boxers. Ron pulled his trunk from under his bed and took out his dress suits his mum had sent for him weeks prior. He had felt bad for Neville however; whose grandmother had sent him frilly dress robes.

He put on his clothes and looked in the mirror. He looked pretty good. Ron looked beside him to see Harry spraying something on himself.

"What's that?" Ron asked pointing to the bottle in Harry's hand that read _'AXE'._

"Body spray. Want some?" Ron took the bottle and sprayed it on reluctantly.

"Oh, this is good." He said after sniffing himself.

"Ready for your dance?" he asked Harry.

"I think so," he replied nervously. Ron clapped him on the shoulder.

"Then, let's go."

They made it down ten minutes before it was to begin which was sufficient time to find your date, if you hadn't already come down with them though Ron had a bit of trouble with that. He had asked several fourth years if they'd seen her and they all replied negatively. One even said they hadn't seen her all day, which worried Ron particularly. He was so nervous that his palms were getting clammy and his heartbeat a little faster than usual. He saw Harry had found Cho and they were walking together, arm in arm. Cho had flattened her hair to complement her cheek bones and a single braid was kept together at the front with a bedazzled sapphire barrette. To match her clip was a sparkly blue dress that fit close around her waist and fell neatly down her thighs and legs, stopping right above her ankles. Ron had to admit, she looked very pretty.

"Hi, Cho. You look great. You haven't seen Hermione anywhere, have you?"

"Oh hello, Ron! You don't look too bad, yourself. No, I haven't seen her." Cho replied in her naturally sweet voice and began to look around.

"Still haven't found her have you, mate?" Harry asked and Ron shook his head. It was three minutes to eight and Ron was now convinced that she decided to stand him up. He was completely devastated. How could she have just not shown up? It didn't matter anyway.

"See you guys. I think I'm just gonna head back up." He said to Harry and Cho.

"Wait, Ron!" Cho called after him as he was heading in the opposite direction. He looked back at her and saw her head motioning to the staircase. He glanced over and saw the most beautiful girl walking slowly down the stairs, one by one, her red silk dress trailing behind. A smirk was painted on her face as she sauntered down. Almost everyone in the room was admiring her beauty usually hidden behind library books and parchment. Ron felt so content with admiration and happiness it was unimaginable. That was _his_ date. Once she reached the final step, she began to make her way towards where Harry, Ron and Cho were standing open mouthed.

"Hi," she greeted and smiled proudly. Her no longer bushy but now curly brown hair, was bouncing happily as she giggled at the bulging eyes she earned from almost everyone in the room. Ron scanned her from top to bottom. Her dress accentuated the curves around her slim stomach and slightly loosened around her hips and stopped right above her ankles. Her feet were settled in stunning white heels that were not too tall or too short.

Ron reached out his arm for her to wrap hers around and she happily complied. At that very moment a bell had gone off and Ron thought I was in his head but it signaled the beginning of the ball. All other eyes that had been previously engaged in Hermione's gorgeousness were now on their dates.

"Attention, please." McGonagall announced, earning silence from the hall.

"To officially begin the ceremony, we ask the four champions of the Tri-Wizard Tournament, and their escorts, to lead us in with a dance."

Harry, Cho, Krum, a sixth year named Alicia, Cedric, a fifth year named Chelsea, Fleur Delacour and a seventh year named Joseph all began their waltz. Harry was admittedly light on his feet as he led Cho. The others were dancing quite well also other than Cedric's date, Chelsea, who was terribly lost and clumsy. After about two minutes of watching them dance, a few teachers paired up and began dancing as well, signaling the 'okay' for everyone to do the same.

"Would you care to dance?"Ron asked and smiled.

"I'd be delighted." She replied and put her hand on his shoulder and arm around his waist. He led the dance and she followed.

"You're a good dancer." Hermione complimented after a few minutes of comfortable silence and gazing into each other's eyes warmly.

"You're not so bad yourself, Granger." Hermione laughed.

"You know, I almost had a freak-out today." Ron whispered

"Oh, really? Why?"

"I hadn't seen you all day. I thought you were avoiding me and when I was looking for you three minutes before the ball, you were nowhere to be found. I'd thought you just decided to not show up."

"Oh, I'm sorry; I was doing my hair." She giggled and her curls bounced as she flipped them.

"I see that, ha." He laughed and admired her curls. Then, his eyes met hers once again.

"You look beautiful." He said without a smile on his face indicating his truthfulness.

"Do you really think so?"

"Of course. You're the most beautiful girl in the room." Hermione rested her head on Ron's shoulder and smiled as they slowed their dance.

"Well, you look very handsome as well. " This was true. She had to admit, he cleaned up good.

"This whole week you've been so sweet to me. It's not like you. Should I be worried?" she joked.

"No, you should be happy. After all, that was my intention."

"Oh my, I really didn't know deep down you were _this_ amazing. I mean, don't get me wrong, I always knew you were charming under your shell but you've surprised me." It surprised him too but he honestly didn't think he could care for a girl, or anyone, like he did for Hermione. They continued to sway to the music until Ron whispered in her ear.

"Do you want to go somewhere?"

"Where?" she replied eagerly.

"I dunno, let's take a walk." And with that, he took her hand and led her outside into the hallway. It was completely deserted and you could hear the clanking echo of Hermione's shoes as they walked. Ron walked with her, hand in hand, over to a ledge where you could overlook the lake. He sat down and she imitated him.

"Let's talk." He said.

"About what?"

"Us." He replied nervously and she gulped. This was it.

"Listen, Hermione I really like you." That was a lie. He loved her and he knew it.

"I really like you too, Ron." More lies. She loved him and she knew it.

"And honestly, I don't even know why, considering you never fail to irritate me," Hermione continued and Ron hung his head in shame.

"But this past week has proven to me how caring you really are." He raised his head again to look at her smiling.

"There's another 'but', though. If we-"she took his hand in hers and squeezed it gently.

"-get together, there's a complication. We are Harry's best friends. If we break up, how are we going to deal with that? How is _he_ going to deal with that? It'll be awkward whenever we get involved in one of Harry's 'missions' that occur at least once each year. Missions that, believe me, I doubt will ever end. Honestly, I doubt we'll even get one quiet year at Hogwarts." They both laughed at how true this was.

"Hermione, if we pretend like this never happened, it'll be awkward knowing that we both have feelings for each other. I mean, I thought this would be nerve-wracking but it feels so perfect and so relaxed. I say we just try it to see if it works out and we just try to live in the moment. Let's face it; I'm surprised we didn't get eaten in first year by Fluffy. I'm actually really glad I plucked up to courage to ask you to the ball. Heck, if I didn't we'd probably get together during a war or something, ha!" They laughed again at the _silly_ thought. Ron was determined on fighting for them and Hermione admired that. She smirked and said:

"Okay, let's give it a go." She said and bit her lip.

"Shake on it?" Ron asked and she held out her hand. He shook it once, pulled it towards him and leaned in for a kiss. She was caught completely off guard but kissed him back in response, passionately. They both felt the spark that they'd been hoping for. The spark that indicated to them that they'd get through it with flying colours.

**And there you go. The END! If you noticed, I put my name as Cedric's fifth year date. Well, Cedric **_**was**_** extremely gorgeous and I didn't have a name for his date! I also mentioned Chelsea's clumsiness because that is totally something I would do, ha! Realize I modernized Cho and Hermione's dresses to give them that red carpet imagery, I liked that. Notice I again added "**_**if I didn't we'd probably get together during war or something"**_**. I love the references. And the ironic **_**"flying colours"**_** at the end was pleasing… Anyways, if you liked the story you can always review or put me on author alert for my other stories. It was fun writing these chapters but I'm off to scribbling rubbish in my notebook again! Bye, guys! **


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